Archive for October, 2012

This is the usual American image of Halloween. Adorable children in costumes, going door to door, collecting treats and laughing. When I was a child we went out alone and ranged as far as we could walk. Now children are shadowed by parents or organized into parties at community centers. In my grandfather’s day they were

closer to the original meaning of Halloween. He and his friends stole furniture from porches, tipped over outhouses and generally destroyed anything they could.

Now, what has this to do with either the election or the end of the world? OK, it’s a tenuous connection. But I was thinking about how many people feel that if their candidates don’t win, the world is headed down in a spiral to destruction. Nothing prophetic, Biblical, Mayan or mathematical. One group is certain that the world will be crushed under a load of debt. The other is sure that international industrialists will run amok and destroy the ecosystem so we’ll have nothing left to eat, drink or breathe.

I’m not as concerned about the accuracy of these theories as I am about the climate that is producing them. Even though the Mayan believers have been quiet lately along with the ones worried about a galactic alignment, sunspots and rogue killer asteroids, there is still an overarching sense of impending DOOM.

Campaign ads are to blame, I’m sure of it. Never mind racial or gender slurs, opposing candidates have become antichrists. If we don’t vote for the correct one, Satan will rule. If you don’t believe me, watch a few hundred of these. Therefore, my feeling is that we’ve done this to ourselves because in our collective id, we like feeling on the edge of disaster. Why? I’m really asking. I have no idea. Is it adrenalin? A need to wipe the slate and start over? Too many post-apocalyptic movies where the main characters are gorgeous and compassionate and we think there will be more of them then for us to meet?

Why aren’t we thinking more about saving the world for the cute, innocent kids to trick or treat in?
Just a thought.